A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

Supporting Palestinian rights makes you “anti-Israel”

Posted: 11 May 2011 05:58 PM PDT

This weekend I’m speaking at the Sydney Palestine conference organised by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. I’m talking about the Arab revolutions and their effect on Palestine, the myopic Australian Jewish community and the media’s inability to speak honestly about Palestinians (I’m looking at you, Murdoch press, who seem to believe that they have to wear a mask before speaking to Palestinians).
Today’s Australian features another non-story about Greens NSW-Senator elect Lee Rhiannon for (gasp!) speaking at the conference. I guess that makes her a rabid anti-Semite who simply believes in peace in the Middle East.

Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon has again been accused of pushing an anti-Israel agenda after accepting an invitation to speak at a “Palestine solidarity” conference, while the Senate yesterday condemned the Greens’ support of a boycott against the Jewish state.
Opposition senator Eric Abetz successfully moved a motion raising concerns about the Greens, Labor and union support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel after Marrickville council’s brief adoption of the policy. “The Senate condemned those in the Labor Party, the Greens and unions who are supporting the BDS campaign against Israel,” Senator Abetz said.
The motion led to some fiery discussion, and Greens leader Bob Brown called on the Senate to spend an entire day debating the violence in the Middle East and finding ways to help people in the region.
Ms Rhiannon’s invitation to a two-day conference at the University of Technology Sydney, organised by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine, is promoted as a forum for discussing “how to make Australian solidarity with Palestinian self-determination more effective”.
“Now that campaigns to isolate Israel are front-page news, the conference is designed to re-focus on the core rights of Palestinians: national freedom, equality, democracy, land, peace and the end of exile of the refugees,” said one of the event’s co-ordinators, Ken Davis.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff slammed Ms Rhiannon’s involvement with the forum, which he described as “an activist conference lacking any hint of balance or academic integrity on a divisive and complex issue”.
Ms Rhiannon, who will take up her Senate spot when the Greens gain the balance of power on July 1, earned a rebuke from Senator Brown last month over her support for the campaign to boycott Israel.

What the US and the West isn’t helping in Yemen

Posted: 11 May 2011 06:13 AM PDT

Palestinian rights barely exist for Australian politicians

Posted: 11 May 2011 06:07 AM PDT

It takes a certain kind of chutzpah for corporatised leaders to continue praising “democratic” Israel.
Today in the Australian parliament the following was put on the record.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Liberal Senator Eric Abetz): To move—That the Senate—
(a) notes:
(i) its decision on 23 March 2011 to acknowledge that Israel is a legitimate and democratic state and a good friend of Australia and to denounce the Israeli boycott by Marrickville Council and condemn any expansion of it,
(ii) the response by the Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, to this decision of the Senate, which
was to ask that the Australian Greens’ opposition to this motion be recorded,
(iii) subsequent statements by Senator Brown that it was a mistake for the New South Wales Greens to advocate this policy and that it was neither the Federal Greens, nor his policy to boycott Israel, and
(iv) Marrickville Council’s decision on 19 April 2011 to rescind its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
policy against Israel;
(b) rejects the policy of the New South Wales Greens which calls on all Australians and the Australian Government to boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and academic events;
(c) notes with concern:
(i) the resolution carried at the 2010 Regional Conference of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to support the BDS campaign against Israel,
(ii) initial support for the support for the BDS campaign against Israel by four Labor councillors on Marrickville
Council,
(iii) the decision by the New South Wales ALP to preference Greens candidate and Marrickville Mayor, Fiona
Byrne, in the seat of Marrickville at the New South Wales state election, and
(iv) reports that Mr David Forde, Convenor of Labor 4A Just Palestine, who supports the BDS campaign, is a
frontrunner for ALP preselection for the Queensland state seat of Stretton;
(d) denounces support lent to the BDS campaign against Israel by the: Victorian Trades Hall Council; Geelong
Trades Hall Council; Newcastle Trades Hall Council; South Coast Labour Council; Queensland Council of Unions;UnionsACT and branches of the Australian Services Union; Teachers’ Union; Liquor, Hospitality and
Miscellaneous Workers Union; Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union; Maritime Union of Australia;
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union; Electrical Trades Union; Finance Sector Union; Health and Community Services Union; and Rail, Tram and Bus Union;
(e) calls on the Australian Council of Trade Unions to oppose this campaign; and
(f) in light of events and information available to the Senate since 23 March 2011, reaffirms its decision that Israel is a legitimate and democratic state and a good friend of Australia.

and

PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS
Notices for Wednesday, 11 May 2011
*1 MS Julie. BISHOP [Liberal MP]: To move—That this House:
(1) restates its support for the motion moved by the then Prime Minister and passed by this House on the sixtieth anniversary of the State of Israel, and in particular:
(a) acknowledges the unique relationship which exists between Australia and Israel, a bond highlighted by the commitment of both societies to the rights and liberty of our citizens and to cultural diversity;
(b) commends the State of Israel’s commitment to democracy, the rule of law and pluralism; and
(c) reiterates Australia’s commitment to Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, and our continued support for a peaceful two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue; and
(2) notes with concern the fraying of the traditionally bipartisan support amongst Australia’s political parties for the State of Israel, and in particular the:
(a) resolution by Greens councillors on Marrickville Council for a boycott of Israel, supported by Labor councillors;
(b) policy adopted by the NSW Greens for an Israel boycott;
(c) decision by the NSW Labor Party to preference the Greens candidate for Marrickville ahead of other candidates who did not support an Israel boycott; and
(d) decision by Labor and Greens councillors on Moreland City Council, Melbourne, to allow the anti-semitic group Hizb ut-Tahrir to use Council premises in August 2010 despite
Hizb ut-Tahrir publicly calling for the slaughter of Jewish people, and its enthusiasm for Osama bin Laden. (Notice given 10 May 2011.)

Only craven politicians feel the need to continually praise a nation that occupies another people. What does it say that there are no mainstream politicians (apart from a few Greens) who oppose this slavishness?
Apartheid Israel continues on its merry way.

Assad associate warns of chaos if he goes

Posted: 11 May 2011 05:27 AM PDT

Of course they would say this but note the warning to Israel. The essential Anthony Shadid in the New York Times:

Syria’s ruling elite, a tight-knit circle at the nexus of absolute power, loyalty to family and a visceral instinct for survival, will fight to the end in a struggle that could cast the Middle East into turmoil and even war, warned Syria’s most powerful businessman, a confidant and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.
The frank comments by Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon who has emerged in the two-month uprising as a magnet for anger at the privilege that power brings, offered an exceedingly rare insight into the thinking of an opaque government, the prism through which it sees Syria, and the way it reaches decisions.
Troubled by the greatest threat to its four decades of rule, the ruling family, he suggested, has conflated its survival with the existence of the minority sect that views the protests not as legitimate demands for change but rather as the seeds of civil war.
“If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel,” he said in an interview Monday that lasted more than three hours. “No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”
Asked if it was a warning or a threat, Mr. Makhlouf demurred. “I didn’t say war,” he said. “What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do.”
His words cast into the starkest terms a sentiment the government has sought to cultivate — us or chaos — and it underlined the tactics of a ruling elite that has manipulated the ups and downs of a tumultuous region to sustain an overriding goal: its own survival.
…
Mr. Makhlouf suggested that economic reform would stay primary.
“This is a priority for Syrians,” he said. “We have to ask for economic reform before speaking about political reform.” He acknowledged that change had come late and limited. “But if there is some delay,” he added, “it’s not the end of the world.”
He warned the alternative — led by what he described as Salafists, the government’s name for Islamists — would mean war at home and perhaps abroad.
“We won’t accept it,” he said. “People will fight against them. Do you know what this means? It means catastrophe. And we have a lot of fighters.”

Reminding the establishment why Wikileaks enables us all

Posted: 11 May 2011 01:20 AM PDT

Last night in Britain Julian Assange won the Sydney Peace Foundation award for his commitment to democracy and human rights:
Video streaming by Ustream

How did Serco end up convincing Australian government of its brilliance?

Posted: 10 May 2011 11:15 PM PDT

Peter Chambers gives a convincing argument:

By all accounts, Serco probably was the least worst choice; what we are dealing with here is the political equivalent of Steven Bradbury’s win in the 2002 Winter Olympics. It’s not so much that Serco won the contract, it’s that there were no other viable contenders. This connects to the de facto situation in Canberra surrounding tender processes like this one. In practice, the leading contenders are those corporations large and wealthy enough to afford highly skilled, well-connected lobbyists capable of gaining access to and maintaining good relationships with their key counterparts in the government.
This is effectively Serco’s business model with governments around the world: aggressive lobbying, savvy corporate communications, underbidding, cost-cutting, sub-sub-sub-sub contracting, and a willingness to provide ‘support services’ for all those things governments cannot or will no longer do. Its workers – often inadequately trained and prepared for their tasks, as a recent 7.30 report detailed ­– do the dirty, dangerous, difficult, repetitive, boring, traumatic work of dealing with things and caring for people that we would rather not think about.
Serco’s yellow-vest-wearing grunts are the frontline workers of the latest wave if the privatisation boom.

Bush really killed Bin Laden, haven’t you heard?

Posted: 10 May 2011 10:18 PM PDT

Israel cancels Palestinian lives and world offers more love

Posted: 10 May 2011 10:15 PM PDT

Welcome to Zionist “democracy”: